Today March 8, 2019, is International Women’s
Day. This year’s theme for Women’s month is
#BalanceForBetter, which is a call-to-action for driving gender balance
across the world.
It’s ironic, then, that still in 2019
we’ve found so many women in positions of power who wish to recede
into the background when it comes to their gender. Acknowledge me for my
work, they say, and not for my gender. The COO of Facebook and author of
the wildly popular Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead book and movement,
Sheryl Sandberg asked that women lean into their workload, both at home
and in the office; yes, do everything you can, and more. Do it effortlessly,
with high visibility and responsibilities, and show that women can do as
much and more than their male counterparts, and without making a feminine
fuss. Ms. Sandberg wants individual women to institute change through their
work, with the assumption that a woman’s lack of a powerful, well-paying
job is the result of not “leaning in” enough. Women themselves
are at fault for their lack of power, rather than the faulty system in which
they are operating.
President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal
Pay Act in 1963. Yet, more than 50 years later, women are still paid only
78-82 cents for every dollar paid to a man. If you're a woman of color, your pay is at the lower end of that spectrum. In Europe, the wage gap stands
at 17.5 percent, meaning women essentially work 64 days of the year for
free. Women only hold 4.8 percent of Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 leadership
positions. Gender equality still has a woefully long journey before it.
In our opinion, if we really want to bring
change, we need to celebrate, as loudly as possible, when a woman holds
a position of power. It is not an issue of being defined by our gender,
but rather the importance of recognizing that there is gender inequality.
It follows, then, that when a woman holds a position of power, she is essentially
working double duty against the current system—her figurative muscles
are larger than her male counterparts, because the tide of inequality against
which she must swim in order to even exist in her position is that much
stronger. If there are, say, 40 rungs on a man’s corporate ladder,
then there are 50 or more rungs on a woman’s corporate ladder. We
must climb higher, and longer, to get to the same place—why wouldn’t
we shine a light on our gender, when we are working so much harder because
of it?

Today
Dolores Hofman heads up the Queens Air Services Development Office,
and the position is just where she wants to be in 2014.
But in 1972, Mrs. Hofman worked
as a secretary in the Pan Am Cargo office in Building 67. She
decided that office work was boring; since she was already a Teamsters
Union member, she was allowed to compete for any union job.
Dolores applied for a post on the
loading dock and became the first female in history to operate
a forklift truck in commercial air cargo service.
At the time she said: “I’m
not much of a women’s libber—but I certainly do believe
in equal job opportunities for men and women.”
The sentiment itself, in the air
cargo world, may have been a first as well.
We extend our best greetings and
a FlyingTypers shout-out to a very special and courageous lady
who continues to do what she wants and in that process has been
an inspiration for many others.

Carl Schurz, an emancipation advocate and
a friend of Abraham Lincoln, said:

We here at FlyingTypers will keep
these thoughts vivid in heart and soul and would like to take a moment to
recognize and appreciate the achievements of women, in both air cargo and
the world at large.

If
You Missed Any Of The Previous 3 Issues Of FlyingTypers
Access complete issue by clicking on issue icon or
Access specific articles by clicking on article title